Out of Moves, Nearly Out of Time

Well, Tomo Ohka, now prospering in the Brewers' rotation, and Zach Day, now a Rockie, were banished for what Robinson considered insubordination. The manager was widely praised then for his old-school mores. However, in light of the combined scores of John Halama's three recent starts -- 25-2 -- it's possible that Frank put a bit too much weight on the niceties of how a pitcher hands, or doesn't hand, the ball to his manager as he leaves the mound. Ohka is now 10-7 with a 3.93 ERA.

Claudio Vargas, now 8-8 as a dependable and entrenched Arizona starter, and Sunny Kim, 4-2 with a 4.50 ERA with the Rockies, were simply given away by Bowden -- put on waivers to clear roster spots so that temporary holes could be plugged in the hold of the leaking U.S.S. RFK. Nobody, including me, protested their departure. Yet they are pitchers who, when Tony Armas Jr. and Ryan Drese were injured recently, might have stepped in the rotation. Easy to say now.

Of course, if Armas were a tough-guy type who pitches through arm soreness after multiple doctors tell him there's nothing structurally wrong with his arm, then this fiasco might never have arisen. You can find front-office folk who'll speak harshly of Armas. But as second baseman Jose Vidro said last night, "Position players can usually play if the problem is just pain. Pitchers usually can't."

"It's an individual's decision. That's part of pitching. Only the individual can tell you," said pitching coach Randy St. Claire last night.

In Drese's case, the decision to shut down for the season and prepare for surgery may have been greased by his cool relationship with Robinson who once yanked him from a game in mid-at-bat, a no-no to a veteran pitcher's refined sensibilities.

Just as the wild-card race will finally be decided, much of the Nats' roster is exhausted, depleted or internally divided. Even Patterson was, according to Robinson, "under the weather" before his start.

"Do you feel like you are leading the [French] Foreign Legion?" Robinson was asked after this defeat. "No Vidro or Johnson. No fourth or fifth starter at all. Bullpen burned to a crisp. And so on."

"Whatever troops I have, I'll lead them. I don't want the team to feel sorry for itself. We'll go out and do what we can. . . . We're still in the race. Just [three] days ago, look where we were," said Robinson, meaning 1 1/2 games out of playoff position. "The same thing can happen again. But we have to take care of our business. We didn't come this far to play .500. We will compete until we are mathematically eliminated."

Pedal to the metal to the end. The engine's smoking, a couple of doors are gone and the wheels are wobbling. Whether this bunch, many of them -- even at the top -- playing for their jobs, makes it to the finish line or not, it's a ride nobody will forget.